Petition · past parliament

Allow partners into pregnancy appointments, scans and ante/postnatal wards

Rejected 10 signatures

What the petition asks

Risk management has been put in place for COVID-19 which stipulates pregnant women must attend all scans and appointments alone, and cannot have visitors to ante/post natal wards. Partners have a key supportive role in these times and should be allowed to attend, using PPE if necessary.
These restrictions result in spending days in hospital during an induction alone, or time after recovering from labour alone, negatively impacting their mental health. It also affects the partners bond with the baby, particularly where a donor has been used or a same sex couple, as the partner feels pushed out of the pregnancy experience. There will be a price paid as we no doubt see a rise in post natal depression for both mums and partners if steps aren’t taken to allow partners back in.

Why it was rejected

It asked for something that is not the responsibility of the UK Government or Parliament.

Decisions about who can attend scans are a matter for the NHS, not the UK Government or House of Commons.

On 5 June, the NHS’s suspension of hospital visiting was lifted. This means that visiting is now subject to local discretion by trusts and other NHS bodies. You should check with your maternity team and sonography unit for their policy on visitors attending antenatal appointments, including scans.

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you find out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: https://www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: https://www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more: https://committees.parliament.uk/work/192/the-governments-response-to-coronavirus/

Timeline

8 Jun 2020 Petition opened for signatures
14 Jul 2020 Rejected by the Petitions Committee

Key facts

Signatures 10
Status Rejected
Rejected 14 Jul 2020

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.